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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26990527">Scratches</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMGee/pseuds/AMGee'>AMGee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCIS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU Kate doesn't die, Don't Like Don't Read, F/M, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, not explicit, pre-Ziva, trigger warning</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:27:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,919</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26990527</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMGee/pseuds/AMGee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony has kept a secret his whole life.<br/>A secret that, should it come out, will change everything.<br/>A secret that needs to come out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anthony DiNozzo &amp; Caitlin Todd, Anthony DiNozzo &amp; Jethro Gibbs, Anthony DiNozzo &amp; Original Female Character(s), Anthony DiNozzo &amp; Timothy McGee, Anthony DiNozzo/Original Male Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo sat at his desk in the bullpen, filling out the week's paperwork - Kate had been forced to shoot an attacking suspect the night before, and had been placed on desk duty until the correct paperwork went through. </p><p>It was 0730 in the morning, and his coworkers were just stepping off the elevator, both fully rested after an eventful day before. Gibbs was in a meeting in MTAC with the director, and as such was not there when Tony's personal phone began to ring.</p><p>Giving the two Agents a slight wave of acknowledgement, he looked at the caller ID and instantly brought the phone to his ear, answering.</p><p>"Grace? Are you okay?"</p><p>The concern in his voice surprised Kate Todd and Timothy McGee as they sat down and turned on their computers. They listened, unabashedly eavesdropping as the man hummed but didn't lose the tension in his body.</p><p>"The kids?"</p><p>Obviously, the 'kids' were alright, judging by the way their coworker relaxed with a large sigh, falling back in his chair. The question was - who were the kids?</p><p>"What is it, then? Not that I'm not happy to hear from you. We still on for this weekend?"</p><p>The man laughed lightly for a moment before becoming deadly serious. His face paled, and the phone dropped from his suddenly trembling hands. He quickly picked it up, glancing around him before rising to his feet and stumbling around his desk, heading out of hearing range.</p><p> </p><p>"Grace...please-please tell me you're trying to make a joke...he<em> can't</em>. Not yet."</p><p>"I'm sorry, Tone. I-I heard about it just now. I'm scared, Tone."</p><p>Tony rested his head against the cold wall, feeling dizzy. This couldn't be happening. Not right now.</p><p>"Okay here's what's gonna happen, Kid...keep everyone inside. I'm gonna book some time off work, I'll be there as soon as I can - promise."</p><p>He could hear the sound of the woman's unsteady breathing on the other side, could hear the way she was sniffling, trying not to break down like she wanted to.</p><p>"Yeah. Yeah. I'll do that, Tones. It'll be okay, won't it?"</p><p>"It will, Gracie. I promise, I'll be there as soon as I can. I'll call Jake and May. You call Eddie and Harry."</p><p>He closed the phone, turning and heading back to the office. He wasn't ready for the questioning that he knew was about to come.</p><p> </p><p>"What was that about, Tony?"</p><p>He didn't answer Kate, focused on pulling his bag from under his desk and packing everything he would need into it.</p><p>"Old flame?"</p><p>Tony looked up, eyes locking on the probational agent. "Try that again, McGee. I dare you."</p><p>"Are you okay?"</p><p>He shook his head, letting out a sigh. "I gotta go. Family emergency, tell the boss I couldn't wait."</p><p>Everything was falling apart - he didn't know if he could control it.</p><p>"Tell the boss what?"</p><p> </p><p>Tony ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "Gibbs, I need to go, I'll explain later."</p><p>"No. Explain now."</p><p>"Boss, really...I need to leave right now. I need to get to Pittsburgh quick."</p><p>"Why?"</p><p>He had to give part of the truth if he wanted to leave. "My sister needs help urgently. I need some time off."</p><p>"You don't have a sister."</p><p>"Not on my records." Tony huffed, "Boss, I swear, I'll tell you everything when I get back, but I need to go right this second. I need to make some calls. A lot of people could be in danger."</p><p>"What I'm hearing is we have a case, DiNozzo. Spill."</p><p>"Gibbs, I don't want you on this. It isn't a case. I want you all to stay the hell out of our business."</p><p>"DiNozzo."</p><p>"Let me make a call." Tony knew when arguing with his boss would be a lost cause - this was one of those cases. He pulled out his phone and called number two on his emergency call list, putting it on speaker.</p><p> </p><p>"Grace. You got a sec? You're on speaker."</p><p>
  <em>"What's up, Tone? You on your way? Eddie's booking a flight, Har can't get over, his wife's going into labour right now."</em>
</p><p>"Not yet. I think my boss can help...well, no I don't, but he's insisting."</p><p>
  <em>"Tone, if you're not careful, this could be a Mandy Walker."</em>
</p><p>The man sighed wearily, "I know, Kid. But maybe, just maybe, we need all the help we can get..."</p><p>
  <em>"If you trust them, Tones. How many to set up?" The woman on the other side gave a sigh. "You're too trusting, Brother."</em>
</p><p>Tony glanced around, Gibbs, Kate and McGee stood around him, stubborn glints in their eyes. "Three, not including me. Attic would be good - just not the Pit."</p><p>A grim laugh echoed from the phone held in his trembling hand. <em>"Never, Brother. I'll save that for just in case. Locks still on."</em></p><p>Tony snorted quietly, giving a nod before vocalising his thoughts. "Good for me. I'll debrief, call and then set off."</p><p>
  <em>"Just the basics, Tone...Just what's needed."</em>
</p><p>"Duh." Tony rolled his eyes and rubbed one hand against his forehead. "Not a bit more. I wouldn't have, anyway. You know that."</p><p>
  <em>"Love you, T, see you in a bit."</em>
</p><p>"Love you too, G. I won't be long."</p><p>Tony closed the mobile, tucking it in his pocked and looking up at his teammates who were impatiently waiting. "Come on. I'll tell you in the meeting room."</p><p> </p><p>Sitting at the head of the table, his boss and two subordinates staring at him impatiently, silently trying to force him to begin. He sighed, trying to organise his manic thoughts. "Give me a minute. This is hard."</p><p>"Right," he sighed, "I didn't tell the truth about everything. There's gaps that I let you fill in yourselves, and I shouldn't have. I should've told the truth from the start, but I didn't...I didn't want to be thought of differently."</p><p>"What is it, Tony?" Kate asked, her eyes wide with curiosity and confusion.</p><p>Tony brushed a hand through his hair again. "When I was twelve, as you know, my father disowned me." He waited for the nods of acknowledgement before continuing.</p><p>"He left me in a hotel in Miami while he went home. I never saw him after that."</p><p>Pausing to figure out how to continue, Tony looked at the three Agents. The only one who didn't seem surprised was Gibbs, who was an expert at hiding his feelings as Tony already knew.</p><p>"CPS were the first to find me after a few days, I'd gotten. I was sent to an Orphanage in Pittsburgh. New Haven."</p><p>
  <em>"everybody welcome Anthony to the orphanage. Anthony, you will be rooming with Grace, May and Jake." The woman's face was stretched tight, lips filled and nails too long, too sharp as they dug into his shoulder.</em>
</p><p><em>"</em>I was raised in that orphanage until I left at eighteen to move to Ohio State. The heads, Mr and Mrs Green were awful. They would beat and hurt us, and Mr Green had his favorites."</p><p>
  <em>"Please, Mrs Green! I'll be good, I promise! I'm sorry!" Tony let out a yelp as he was pushed to the side, knocking his head against the kitchen counter as he fell. </em>
</p><p>Tony waited a moment, waiting for the trio to gain their ability to speak.</p><p>"Why didn't you tell anyone?" McGee frowned, innocent. Tony thought for a fleeting moment that he reminded him of a younger Grace.</p><p>He laughed bitterly. "There was a girl in another room. Mandy Walker. She was one of Mr Green's favorites. She told a teacher, who reported it to CPS, just a few months after I got there. We had an observation, but everything looked fine. The Greens were wealthy, had a lot of influence in the area...We never saw Mandy after that, there's ideas and rumors, but none have been officially confirmed. Only the favorites know for sure, but they'd never tell."</p><p>"What do<em> you</em> think happened?"</p><p>Tony smiled, though there was no genuine humor in it. "I <em>know</em> what happened, Timmy. I saw Mr Green carry the body out of the Pit. He caught me, gave me the beating of my life plus a bit more, and I never told."</p><p>
  <em>The boy watched, shocked and horrified as the man dragged the girl, thirteen years old, from The Pit. Her body was twisted and broken, one arm jutting out at an unnatural angle. Blood covered her frail body to the point where he couldn't find a source.<br/>He stepped back, trying to stay hidden. He felt bile rising up his throat and swallowed it back down as tears burned behind his eyes.</em>
</p><p>"So what happened after that?"</p><p>"I was just about to leave for Ohio. The cops came barging in, arrested the Greens and took all of us to a hospital. They did loads of tests, took all sorts of evidence. We gave statements, some of us went to trial, some of us didn't. They were given life. A new lady took over, but I never went back in there - not until Grace took over and changed everything."</p><p>"Why did you never tell us?" </p><p>
  <em>"Tell anyone, I'll kill you. I'll kill Grace. I'll kill everyone you have and will ever care about."</em>
</p><p>"I couldn't..." Tony sighed, rubbing his hands over his face, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes until he saw colours. "The fear never goes away. Even when you know they're gone, there's always that voice in the back of your mind telling you that they'll kill you. That they'll kill your family...besides, it's embarrassing. How do you tell people you're supposed to work with that you spent your childhood being beat up and locked away? I'd give up anything for Grace, even my dignity - that's why I'm telling as much as I can."</p><p>Gibbs grunted. "Why now?"</p><p>"Mr Green - William Green - he escaped an hour ago. Grace called, she's panicking...we're scared, Boss. We don't want to be alone - I need to get to her, and if telling the three of you about it is what it takes, then so be it."</p><p>"You think they'll come for you?"</p><p>"You don't know what they're capable of, Kate. You didn't see, feel everything. He'll do anything to get back at us. </p><p>After all, Grace and I were the ones who reported them."</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gibbs was the designated driver, chosen by Tony as the fastest. Kate and McGee sat in the back without argument, giving Tony the passenger seat immediately.</p><p>"Hey Jake? It's Tony. You heard from Grace?"</p><p>Kate wondered how she had gotten it so wrong. She had profiled Tony to be a childish womaniser, no deeper than a puddle. Instead, it turned out that he had kept a whole life secret from all of them. Why? Because of fear? Or did he not trust them?</p><p>"You alone right now, man?"</p><p>"Oh, good...listen, I'm on my way to Silver Linings - Grace called. Will's escaped. We're all getting together."</p><p>"I know...me too, Jake. Me too."</p><p>"I'm not ready either, the fallout's gonna be...well, you know."</p><p>"I've got a few coworkers with me, they're good."</p><p>Something said on the other line made Tony frown. He looked around at the others in the car, noting how they were pretending not to be listening; Kate looking out of the window and McGee re-reading the page he had been stuck on for the past ten minutes.</p><p>"No. No...I won't. Not that, Jake. You know I won't. Nothing more than what is needed. My word."</p><p>"Right, I'll see you tonight. We won't be long, my boss is a maniac as a driver."</p><p>Tony laughed shortly before hanging up and beginning to dial once more.</p><p> </p><p>Tim McGee had not been with the team for long - he had joined almost a year ago, and had never seen Tony this genuinely serious. Yes, Tony was professional and determined during all cases, but this topped all of them. </p><p>He was struggling to link the easygoing, cheerful man with this new Tony, whose face had yet to regain it's healthy colour, whose hands trembled like they would never hold anything again, whose left foot was tapping against the floor of the car with fervour.</p><p>He didn't understand how Tony had managed to hide all of this from them. Tony had mentioned being disowned as a boy before, but Tim had never considered the consequences of that. <br/>Tim knew that he wasn't the best with people; his social skills needed working on. But he thought he had been getting better at noticing things; shouldn't he have noticed that Tony showed some of the more common symptoms of childhood abuse.</p><p>Of course, he had noticed Tony's problems with authority - the way he struggled with following orders from pretty much everyone except Gibbs; the way he seemed to both crave and fear touch; how he never spoke about his childhood home life if he could help it. He hoped that after this, Tony would be a bit more open with them, but there was that niggling thought in the back of his mind - <em>would</em> Tony come back to them?</p><p>Would he? If his life, everything he had worked to keep hidden, had been revealed to people he didn't truly trust?</p><p> </p><p>"Good with me, May-May. Love you, Kid."</p><p>Curious, Kate spoke up. "If you don't mind, Tony...why is everybody coming back?"</p><p>Tony chuckled, but answered despite not wanting to. "When we were kids, we couldn't leave our rooms except for school. We were in rooms of around four or five, and ended up getting really close...the other rooms, we would meet up with in secret...anyway, we protected each other because nobody else would. No one person was responsible for everyone else, we were almost like our own little family, and I guess it stuck. We still meet up once or twice a year, some of us more frequently."</p><p>"Who do you see the most?"</p><p>"Grace, definitely," Tony said, a fond smile on his lips. "She's always been my best friend, my little sister. We call each other a few times a week, and meet up every couple of weeks. After her, probably Jake or May. The four of us shared a room, so we were bound to get close. Jake and his husband live in New York, and May lives in Philadelphia with her husband and nephew."</p><p>Gibbs cursed as he swerved around a truck, drawing a snicker from Tony as he texted on his phone. </p><p>"You'll like the kids. At the orphanage, I mean - Gracie runs it. They're really sweet, and they've heard a lot about you. They really want to meet the man who builds boats in his house."</p><p>Tim was surprised. "You tell them about us?"</p><p>He received a raised eyebrow in response. "Duh. What do you expect me to tell them about? The weather? Matty and Georgia want to meet you - they want to learn all about computers from their very own Elf-lord."</p><p>"Kate, you're gonna be pulled into teaching Jace, Kay, Elle and Leo all about profiling."</p><p>"You know them well, don't you, DiNozzo." Gibbs never took his eyes off the road.</p><p>"I guess...I see them pretty often, they're cool." Tony flushed. "'sides, I wanna help them grow up just like we wanted to. Grace's perfect, but she doesn't trust outside help, so she has her work cut out for her."</p><p> </p><p>Kate smiled, sharing a look with Tim. "It's a nice look on you, Tony. Being a parent."</p><p>The man rolled his eyes. "I'm not a parent, Katie...maybe an Uncle, but not a parent."</p><p>"Suure."</p><p>"So, what's Grace like, Tony? You've never mentioned her."</p><p>"She's actually a bit like you, Probie...well, she used to be, anyway. She's a bit harsher now, but she has moments where she's innocent. She's really kind; the kids at Silver Linings are her everything. She works too hard sometimes, trying to be perfect. It's funny, actually, she used to want to work for the FBI, capture people like the Greens. She changed her mind the first time I got shot as a detective. She's been through too much pain in her life to go looking for more."</p><p>"But haven't you, too?"</p><p>Tony shrugged slightly, frowning thoughtfully. "Yeah, that's true, I guess...but then, I always dealt with things a different way to G."</p><p>The conversation ended after that, a silence filling the car as the radio played in the background.</p><p>"Breaking News: William Green has escaped from the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta. This man is highly dangerous - please do not interact...imprisoned thirteen years ago for the abuse and rapes of many minors under the care of himself and his wife for life with no chance of parole for seventeen--"</p><p>Tony breathed a sigh of relief when Gibbs reached over and switched off the radio. "Th'nks Boss."</p><p>The man reached a hand over, placing it on Tony's shoulder for a moment, ignoring the initial flinch. He waited until he felt Tony relax under his hand before speaking. "You're not alone in this, Tony. Don't shut us out, we'll fix this and get that bastard."</p><p>"Thanks, Boss. Gonna need to talk to the FBI 'bout this...they won't be happy about you interfering."</p><p>"Don't care," Kate piped up from the back seat, not moving her attention the the phone in her hands.</p><p>Tim nodded his agreement, catching Tony's eyes in the mirror and giving a small smile of encouragement. </p><p>Tony smiled back.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
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